


Birthday Wishes

by MiniNephthys



Category: End Roll (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-15 06:12:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8045392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiniNephthys/pseuds/MiniNephthys
Summary: Gardenia finds out that Russell shares her birthday, and the next year, they have a joint party.





	Birthday Wishes

“We have the same birthday,” Russell says to Gardenia, a few days after the party.

He’d been jealous. So jealous that she had so much attention on her, got presents and a beautiful cake, all just because she was born on a certain day, and he didn’t get that even though he’d done exactly as much just by being born. He’d been jealous and mad.

So he’d left early. The longer he stayed there, the more likely he would do something ‘bad’. He recognized that, and it was better just to avoid the temptation completely.

It took him a few days to calm down about the experience enough to be able to have this conversation, but here he is, and he’s said it, and he realizes after he’s said it that he doesn’t know how she’s going to react.

She looks at him with wide eyes. “Really? Then, how come you were at my birthday party and not yours?”

“I didn’t have a birthday party,” says Russell. “If I’d invited anyone from our class, they would have gone to yours instead.”

“Hmm… I guess it’d be bad to have competing parties like that.” She thinks for a second, then nods, as if it’s already settled. “Alright! Then next year, we’re going to have a joint birthday party!”

“...We are?” Russell asks. He’s not sure he heard her right.

“Yep! So that way, we get the same amount of attention, and our classmates don’t have to pick between us. ...Unless you don’t want to?” she asks.

“That’s fine - that’d be great, actually.” He doesn’t remember ever having a birthday party, and a joint one is a lot better than none. “Um… But I can’t bake a cake or anything…”

“Don’t worry about it! My dad will make one twice as big for both of us,” Gardenia replies. “And yours can help out with the decorations, if they want?”

“They won’t want to,” Russell says, and tries not to sound too bitter about it.

“...Oh, okay. That’s fine!” she says, the cheer coming back to her voice after briefly faltering. “I’ll definitely remember this next year.”

Of course he expects her to completely forget.

Roughly eleven months later, it’s him that’s forgotten the conversation. In his defense a lot has happened since - things like his father being arrested, and his mother giving up custody of him. It’s enough to make anyone lose track of minor things like birthday parties.

Which is why when Gardenia asks him, “Dad wants to know what colors you want for our birthday party,” Russell can do nothing but stare at her for a second.

“...Huh?”

“Our joint birthday party! I think yellow and green are nice colors, but you should get a say too, since it’s half your party,” she says. And then, with a huff of impatience, “You didn’t forget we were sharing one this year, right?”

Russell thinks for a bit, and finally recalls the conversation. “Oh - I kind of forgot, sorry. But I still want to do it.”

“That’s okay,” Gardenia replies. “So, what are your favorite colors?”

“Yellow and green are nice,” he says. “Um - but can we have lots of balloons? I like those.”

“We’ll have tons of balloons!” she says, and pokes him in the shoulder. “Do you want to ask your dad to help with the decorating?”

It takes a second for him to process who she’s asking about. “I think he’ll say okay, but he might fall asleep in the middle...”

Doctor Kantera - Russell doesn’t know if he’ll ever think of him as ‘dad’ even if he does have legal custody now - is all too happy to offer his help with the decorating. Russell offers to do some work a couple times, like helping clean Gardenia’s house for the party, but the most he’s allowed to do is make design choices for the birthday cards and pass them out to the class.

He gets to Chris’ last, so he can pull him aside and say, “You have to come to this one.”

“But I don’t have anything to wear,” Chris says, alarmed. “It’s Gardenia’s party, so I can’t just show up in my regular stuff.”

“It’s half my party,” Russell says, “so you can wear something half as nice as you would to Gardenia’s party.”

“...But…” Chris clearly doesn’t have a lot to say to that.

“Please?” Russell asks. “It’s my first real birthday party and it’d mean a lot if you came. You don’t even have to talk to her if you don’t want to.”

“...You drive a hard bargain sometimes, Russell. I’ll show.”

Gardenia’s father and Kantera kick the two of them out of the house while they make preparations for the party. Tabasa entertains them for a few hours - they walk around the park a bit and stop at a museum about dinosaurs. It’s the first time Russell’s been there (the entrance fee isn’t cheap) and the skeletons are much more impressive in person than on TV.

Gardenia keeps checking her watch and reminding him how long it is until they get to go back home, and when the time comes she nearly tackles Tabasa in her excitement. “Thank you for the museum tickets let’s go back I can’t wait!”

“Easy, easy,” Tabasa says with a chuckle. “What about you, Russell? You ready to see what they’ve got set up for your big day?”

Russell finds himself nodding with more eagerness than he intended.

He thought he’d been ready for the decorations, but the sheer mass of streamers and balloons is beyond what he’s expecting. Every inch of the first floor is decorated top to bottom. There are presents already on the gift table - two for Gardenia, two for him - and Tabasa stops to pull two more out and set them down.

“Ah, you’ve finally arrived,” Kantera says, smiling. Despite all the effort this must have taken, he looks far from tired. “How do you two like it?”

While Gardenia is talking a mile a minute about how great the balloons are and how festive everything looks, Russell just takes a few steps forward and hugs Kantera.

“That overwhelmed, I see.” Kantera lightly strokes Russell’s hair. “You deserve to have people go out of their way for you on your birthday, you know. If anything, I’d have liked to hire entertainers, but I was vetoed. Something about going overboard?”

Russell doesn’t think he could have handled much more festivity than this. He tries to put his feelings into words, but all that comes out is: “Thank you.”

Kantera seems to understand what he means anyway. “It’s no trouble at all. Happy birthday.”


End file.
